Senior Brexiteer admits leaving EU is 'not working out'

Dan Hannan said Britain should seek to be in a Swiss-style trade agreement with the EU.
AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite

Senior Brexiteer Dan Hannan has admitted that Brexit is "not working out" the way it was planned.

The Conservative MEP said Britain should seek an "Efta-type arrangement, à la Suisse" to protect trade with the EU.

Mr Hannan, writing on ConservativeHome, said he was often asked, "not working out the way you thought, is it?" He said: "To be fair, they've got a point."

A senior Brexiteer today admitted leaving the European Union is "not working out" the way it was planned.

Dan Hannan, the Conservative MEP whose speeches against Brussels went viral on YouTube, said Britain should seek an "Efta-type arrangement, à la Suisse" to protect trade with the EU.

He expressed surprise that an uncompromising Brexit was being pursued despite the closeness of the 52-48 referendum result which backed Leave.

Mr Hannan, writing on ConservativeHome, said he was often asked, "not working out the way you thought, is it?" He said: "To be fair, they've got a point." He went on: "I had assumed that, by now, we'd have reached a broad national consensus around a moderate form of withdrawal that recognised the narrowness of the result."

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He backed being in the European Free Trade Association (Efta) — participation in the single market of 500 million people, but without the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

REUTERS/Russell Cheyne

Former minister Stephen Hammond, a Remain backer, said the idea was gaining traction among MPs. "It solves our regulatory issues, allows access, but not membership, [to the] single market, gives us a say, rather than no say, on regulation and allows the prospect of negotiations on restricting movement to workers not citizens," he said.

Next week's crunch Cabinet committee meeting to discuss the customs issue has been brought forward a day to Tuesday. A senior source dismissed reports that the customs partnership was Prime Minister Theresa May's "preferred" option, saying that she was looking for "the option that works".

Brexiteers suggest the UK could remain in the EU customs union beyond 2020, before adopting the "maximum facilitation" proposal, while the customs partnership idea has been boosted by signs EU officials are taking it more seriously.